


Chapter Three: Allison

by obscurityofphylum



Series: Extra Ordinary: My Life as Number Seven [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Allison Hargreeves Needs A Hug, DO NOT READ IF TRIGGERED BY ED TALK, Extra Ordinary: My Life as Number Seven, MAJOR TW FOR EATING DISORDER., Protective Allison Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Vanya’s book
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24974821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obscurityofphylum/pseuds/obscurityofphylum
Summary: My third sibling and only sister, Allison, was a showstopper from the start. There's no surprise there. She was always special because she was the only girl in the academy, seen as the humorous, gentle older sister who kept our brothers in line.Vanya’s chapter on Allison.
Series: Extra Ordinary: My Life as Number Seven [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1800355
Kudos: 68





	Chapter Three: Allison

_My third sibling and only sister, Allison, was a showstopper from the start. There's no surprise there. She was always special because she was the only girl in the academy, seen as the humorous, gentle older sister who kept our brothers in line._

_At home, she was really the babysitter of us all. before Grace came along, Allison was the one who, despite her age, did nearly all the motherly tasks for the boys. Even at age four, she was the one cleaning up the playroom, splitting up fights, fixing toys, and tucking us into bed._

_I think she was threatened by Grace's presence. Allison had always been naturally protective over us, so seeing Grace doing the things that she took pride in doing and showing responsibility to our father was a big point of anger for her._

_She wanted our father to think that she had it under control, that she could manage us and give us all the love and affection we needed and lacked from him as a father. In her own way, it was just another coping mechanism for the constant absence of our father's attention._

_Her powers were discovered when she was two. One of our nannies had been gossiping, and like two year olds do, she picked up on the woman's vocabulary. It started out innocently. I heard a rumor that you gave me the toy. I heard a rumor that you ate your dinner._

_But, our father caught on quickly. Well before our fourth birthday, it was a regular occurrence to be lined up in front of Allison, with Father forcing her to rumor us into doing simple tasks in the name of training._

_Sometimes she'd cry and plead, other times she'd smile like a fox and carry out each unseemingly malicious order. At times, she'd even go further than what father had directed her. She wanted nothing more than to please him._

_Despite her efforts, our father never gave her much attention. Allison wasn't at the top of his list. he naturally assumed that since she was a girl, she was not strong enough to do much damage in sparring. She proved him wrong after breaking Diego’s arm during training when we were eleven._

_When Five disappeared, Allison was devastated, but she held it together for us. I think she thought that she had failed as a protector to us all. At night, as I walked past her bedroom, I would often see her through the crack of her door. She would stand in front of the mirror for hours, trying to rumor Five back into existence. It never worked._

_After their first mission, the press swarmed onto all of them like a hoard of wasps. But, they seemed to favor her. She was a girl, she was an object in the face of the media, even when we were young. And as her presence grew, her self confidence dwindled._

_It started with the innocent half-eaten dinners and self-led extra physical training. It was a way for her to keep control, a virtue she desperately needed while living with our father. Things spun out of her grasp quickly._

_Soon enough, half-eaten dinners had led to untouched plates. When our father forced her to eat (not for the sake of her health, but in yet another power-hungry clutch he had over his soldiers) we would hear her gagging hours after dinner._

_When everybody was supposed to be asleep in their beds, sometimes I would find her on her knees in the bathroom, fingers shoved far down her throat in what i thought at first was her own act of rebellion against our father; it grew obvious that it wasn't just our father's parenting driving her to do these things._

_Our house was never quiet at night. the sound of Ben crying himself to sleep, Klaus waking up screaming from nightmares, Diego sharpening his knives to bide time with his insomnia. Allison was a little more sneaky about it. but, if you listened closely on any given night of our teenage years, you might've been able to hear Allison, hand over her mouth to muffle her sobs as she performed more and more of these obsessive rituals._

_We all knew, but we were afraid she'd get angry and turn on us if we told anybody. She was always in control, her power staring us down like a tiger in the brush. So, we kept our eyes down and our mouths shut to everything we saw: weights in her pockets at our monthly physicals, journals upon journals equating the calories of each meal we ate._

_The media ate it up. By the time we were fifteen, she was booking photoshoots nearly every week. She was the star of the Academy, perfectly poised and always having the correct answer waiting for each interview question behind smiles._

_She was always looking for the next person to please or impress. She basked in the early fame and the glory devoured her too young for her to understand how she was changing._

_She wasn't selfish until the cameras were rolling, and then she had to be the best, the most graceful, the spotlight's sole focus. And when the media declared that stick-thin was attractive, she followed the demands of the entertainment business like a sheep._

_I think she’s always been a predator in some sense. She’s willing to do whatever it takes to be in the spotlight, no matter how wrong she knows it is. She cares deeply for others, but she lost sight of a lot when the fame started._

_Allison’s key tactic was to have people sitting on edge based on her mood. At some times she’d be laughing and joking, including me in the conversation and late-night sneakouts for donuts, and making me feel like somehow, some way, things were turning around. But the second I got comfortable and felt like I was finally breaking the invisible barrier between me and my siblings, she’d turn around and act like she didn’t even know me. The truth was, it was hard to know anybody in that house where self expression was so muffled and discouraged._

_When Ben died, that sinking feeling of failure settled in Allison again. I don't think she knew what to do, sowhen the same tactics of trying to bend reality when Five disappeared didn't end up working with Ben either, she resorted to the only way of coping that she was familiar with: manipulation._

_Like everything, the careful web of control was severed by the cutting edge of her entire psyche: needing more. More affection. More fame. More favors. This was no special occasion._

_She left the house third, and Hollywood welcomed her. But, when they saw she wasn't the same pliable, innocent thirteen year old that acting managers seemed to love, she was thrown to the doorstep before she could even begin to speak._

_Hollywood as a kid was easier. People were nicer to her, they saw her as a doll that they could bend and twist whichever way they wanted and dress in whatever was the latest fashion. Now, as an adult, she isn't nearly as impressionable._

_The media is her replacement for the love we weathered shortages of as a child. They praise her, carry her existence on a silver platter, none of which Reginald was never interested in._

_Allison, in her own way, succumbed to the treatment of our father and rose like a phoenix in the_ _ashes in the face of the press. Like always, she moved on to the next person she could please, but deep down, I know that like the rest of us, I know that the past must haunt her._


End file.
